The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for communicating with local interactive wireless devices in order to obtain information concerning services associated with or provided by the wireless devices.
Wireless devices, such as cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), are becoming more commonly used and have the potential for communication over the Internet in addition to traditional telephone networks. The Internet communication with these devices permits users to obtain services and other related information using wireless communication with the devices. For example, a user can download content from the world wide web on the Internet using a cell phone and have the information displayed on the display panel of the cell phone. Therefore, in addition to using the cell phone for voice communication, the user can obtain content over the Internet concerning, for example, services available from service providers. The user can also execute transactions over the Internet using the cell phone or other wireless device. For example, the user can make electronic purchases for good or services, analogous to how users can make transactions over the Internet using a personal computer having a connection to the Internet.
Many wireless devices, however, provide for limited ways to enter information for communications over the Internet. Cell phones, for example, typically have only a key pad in addition to a microphone, making entry of textual information slow and inconvenient. Other devices, such as PDAs, may have even more limited ways to enter textual information. Therefore, these devices do not typically provide the same ease of interacting over the Internet as provided by a personal computer having a keyboard and cursor-control device for easy and convenient xe2x80x9cpoint and clickxe2x80x9d selection of content displayed in web pages.
Wireline devices, such as conventional phones, provide for even more limited interaction over the Internet. In particular, they typically do not have a display panel as present, for example, on cell phones. Therefore, these wireline devices usually only provide for voice interaction and communication, possibly involving phone calls over both traditional phone networks and the Internet.
Also, use of Internet communication with the wireless devices does not always provide a way to communicate with many types of service providers. For example, certain service providers do not have an Internet presence for receiving an order for services and must receive it in other ways such as through fax or voice (phone) communication. Therefore, even with Internet access by the wireless devices, they do not have access to many types of service providers who otherwise may provide services to the users.
In addition, technology and protocols exists for communication directly between wireless devices, which further enhances the functions they can perform. With this communication, a wireless device can obtain an indication of other local wireless devices within a particular short range of it. However, the information received is typically only a network identifier for the other devices. Therefore, the wireless device has no indication of services available from those wireless devices or from service providers associated with them.
Finally, security is often an issue with any Internet transaction. A user making a transaction to purchase goods or services must typically provide information identifying his or her name and address, as well as credit card information. Certain technology does exist for transmitting the information with encryption to help prevent interception of the actual information. Even with encryption, however, the service provider obtains the identity of the user making the purchase and the user""s credit card number. Therefore, the user""s identity and credit card information is potentially known by many different service providers and present in many different databases as maintained by the service providers. Increased distribution of such information can increase a likelihood of misuse of the information.
Accordingly, a need exists for increased options and versatility for user""s having wireless devices or wireline devices to interact and make transactions over the Internet, for the ability to contact and make transactions with more types of service providers, for obtaining more information concerning local services, and for providing more secure transactions.
An apparatus and method consistent with the present invention provide for detecting local interactive wireless devices and an indication of services associated with them. A ping signal is sent from a user wireless device and, the wireless device receives responses to the ping signal from other wireless devices within a particular range of the user wireless device. The ping signal is a wireless signal transmitted to local interactive wireless devices in order to obtain a response from them. The responses are assembled into a structured format and used to determine a particular interaction with the user wireless device such as services available with the particular range.